As I have blogged about before, I am not much into friends. This is due mostly to the fact that I have three children, a husband, two part time jobs and I’m in grad school. I love my friends but barely have enough time for my family. So like everything in life I have to be pretty intentional about who I chose to spend time with when I am able to have girlfriend time.
I have friends who like to talk about clothes (I love clothes), our kids (I love kids) and who give me their best gluten free recipes (I love donuts but have to eat GF). And particularly because of my roles in ministry I am blessed to be around a plethora of wonderful women who are easy to love and talk with. But I also have a few friends who I can not only talk about all of the above things, but who I can also go deeper with, trust completely and who know just what to say, when to say it and when to just be quiet. I can tell them about my recent faith trial and I know they will pray. And they won’t just pray for me to be happy or to get what I want, they will pray God’s Word over my situation. They do not need to tell anyone else what is going on in my life and they do not need to ask me about my faith crisis again unless I bring it up. They are the kind of friends who are great listeners,who give me godly advice and who when they feel prompted to speak the truth in love, I can take it from them. Some of these friends are older than I am but a few are my age or younger (during this crazy faith trial God used my oldest daughter to speak His truth into my situation and she is 28 years younger than I am). God uses certain women in my life to point me toward Him; sometimes very tenderly and gently and sometimes with loving sarcastic mockery when I need to quit crying and wake up. These women are the ones I try to make time to talk to or grab coffee with no matter how busy I am. These are the women who keep me afloat when despite my flailing my water wings aren’t keeping me above the waves; eyes, nose or otherwise.
“Dear God, Thank you for my sisters. Thank you for helping me realize and understand how much I need godly friends in my life and in my trials. Thank you for friends who love You more than they love me. Thank you for friends who I don’t necessarily need to see often or spend hours and hours with but who help me see You more clearly when I need You most. Thank you for friends who point me toward You by whatever means. God help us be intentional with our time and with our friends and help us find true Christian friends to help us get through this thing called life. Thank you in this week leading up to Good Friday for the reminder that you did not lead and live and do ministry in isolation so certainly neither should we. In Your Name, Amen.”